Page 38 of Every Spiral of Fate (This Woven Kingdom #4)

Thirty-Seven

ALIZEH LOOKED UP BY DEGREES , her pulse racing as she studied the man she’d recently married.

She was stunned to discover that Cyrus was more striking than ever, his beauty somehow refining each time she looked upon his face.

She loved the dark copper of his hair; the sharp slashes of his brows; the sun-kissed glow of his skin; the devastating depths of his blue eyes.

The more she came to know him, the harder it was to behold him, for he was like the sea, unfathomable.

And he’d told her he loved her.

The very memory of that night left her feeling suddenly breathless. Restless. Alizeh hadn’t said more than a few words to Cyrus in five days, and she was surprised by the sweep of emotion that overcame her then, for she’d not been able to name this pain until just now.

She missed him.

“Cyrus,” she said, hardly recognizing the sound of her own voice. “Would you like to sit down?”

He didn’t look at her, though he shook his head. His voice was subdued when he said, “I won’t be staying.”

“Nonsense,” said the princess. “You’re the only one of our small troupe who’s managed to escape a fortune telling, and I never had a chance to deliver you news of your last leaves—”

“Let him go if he does not wish to stay,” said the prince. “Why are we always insisting he remain among us?” Kamran casually slung an arm over the back of Alizeh’s chair, and she felt the heat of his hand settle atop her shoulder.

Alizeh straightened in alarm.

“Take care, Kamran,” said Hazan in warning. “She is not your wife yet.”

Kamran retracted himself, sitting upright. “Heavens, but I’ve grown tired of this charade.”

“It’s been less than a week,” said Hazan. “And it was your own infernal idea.”

“Hazan,” said Cyrus, gently clearing his throat. “I’ve come to deliver information—”

“Can you blame me for my impatience?” said the prince. “When she grows only more exquisite by the hour? I am every day more enamored of her magnificence.”

In response to these pretty words, Alizeh experienced nothing but horror. She looked up in panic at Cyrus, who stood almost unbearably still, even as his face bore no expression.

“Kamran,” she said carefully. “While I am grateful for your kindness, you should not speak to me in such a manner—not where the soldiers might overhear—”

“Even if it is true?” he said, turning to study her with a genuine smile.

“When you grow only finer and lovelier every day?” He looked up at the others.

“I’m sure the soldiers would not begrudge me declaring aloud such truths, when it is visible to any seeing eye.

In fact I’m certain they’d all agree with me.

” He turned to Cyrus. “What do you say, King? Will you not agree with me?”

“Watch yourself,” Hazan said to the prince, his eyes flashing. “You play a dangerous game.”

“Me?” said Kamran. “When his every action and attitude is an absurdity?” He looked once more at Cyrus. “What is your game, precisely? Where do you go when you disappear? Are you off to meet with your dark friend?”

“ Kamran ,” said Alizeh, shocked. “I beg you to stop.”

Kamran stiffened, surprised by Alizeh’s sharp tone. “Forgive me,” he said. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Alizeh didn’t know how to manage this.

She knew Kamran was only trying to be kind to her; and she understood why he might try to win her affection when he hoped to marry her. It was a horrifically tangled situation, and she couldn’t, with any justice, blame Kamran for his hatred of Cyrus.

How could she?

Over and over, Cyrus intentionally presented himself as evil. Over and over, he offered them evidence that he was worthy of slaughter.

She, too, used to believe this lie.

“I don’t mean to speak harshly with you,” she said to Kamran, striving for calm. “It’s only that I wish—”

Hazan cleared his throat.

He shook his head almost imperceptibly at Alizeh, then turned his gaze to Cyrus. “You were saying that you’ve come to deliver information?”

Cyrus nodded, fixing his eyes on a point in the distance.

“Yes,” he said. “Though I suppose I should begin by reminding everyone that I was recently accused of sending spies into Ardunia over the past several months. I’d like to confirm that this is true.

I’d been assigned to ascertain the precise location of a fabled magic—”

“You’d been assigned?” Kamran laughed darkly. “By the devil, no doubt?”

“Yes.”

“ No ,” breathed Alizeh.

Cyrus’s jaw tensed. “As you all know, there are entire strains of magical crystal even elevated Diviners cannot access,” he said. “No one has ever known who might be worthy of quarrying such powerful compounds, but the mountains do not receive unsolicited visitors without retaliation—”

“Then it’s true,” said Kamran, amazed. “I was right. You’re the one responsible for the unexplained rockslides across the empire. You were searching all this time for her magic, weren’t you? Tell me, am I to soon discover that you’re the root cause of every disturbing turn in my life?”

Cyrus looked up at him. “The explosions were unintentional. They were defensive reactions of the volatile, protected magic. I’ve been engaged in this hunt for nearly a year,” he said.

“I’ve had teams infiltrate Ardunia on specialized, ongoing missions these last nine months, and while they knew I was searching for an ancient, powerful cell of magic, they didn’t know why.

I didn’t learn, not until I was able to acquire your book”—he briefly looked at Alizeh—“that I should narrow my field of search exclusively to the Arya cascades—”

“It is astonishing to me,” said Kamran angrily, “that we might hear this speech and continue to allow him to live and walk among us as though he’s worthy of salvation.

When he admits with his own tongue that he has committed espionage against my empire.

When he admits with his own tongue that he is under the clear and absolute command of the most reprehensible of creatures—”

“Kamran,” said Alizeh. “Please—will you not let him finish speaking—”

“Must you leap always to his defense?” Kamran looked genuinely wounded.

“Is it not enough that he has sold himself to evil? Even compassion, I think, should have a limit. I treasure your tender heart,” he said to Alizeh, “but sometimes I worry that you are too kind. I hope, when we are married and have children of our own—”

Firuzeh snapped a biscuit in half. “Close your mouth, darling. This is hardly the time.”

“You would turn on me, too?” he said to his mother.

“Why am I the only one capable of maintaining my hatred? Why am I expected to look upon a savage brute with nuance? The man who killed my grandfather—who murdered his own father—who slaughtered our Diviners? I’m told over and over to shut up and say nothing, to do nothing even as his dark soul pervades every facet of my life.

Tell me, how does it feel?” he said, turning to Cyrus.

“To sleep every night in the bed of another man’s wife? ”

“ Kamran ,” Hazan shouted, thunderstruck.

Alizeh went white-hot with shock. She turned, slowly, to face Kamran, but her horror was so great she was rendered speechless.

“Each day that I do not slit your throat,” said Cyrus softly, “is both a miracle and a mercy, so if you are testing me now to determine whether I am possessed of infinite patience, you will be sorely disappointed.” He met Kamran’s eyes with a violent, terrifying fury.

“I am every inch the brute you describe. Speak to me of such things again and I will carve the very soul from your body.”

Kamran would’ve leaped from the table in outrage, except that Hazan shoved him back into his seat violently.

“Sit down and shut up,” he said sharply to the prince, “or I will bodily remove you from this conversation.”

“What is wrong with you?” Kamran shot back. “How can you possibly defend him when he all but admits to his crimes—”

“ Stop ,” Alizeh said solemnly, lifting her eyes to Kamran’s. The word was soft but fatal. “If you cannot endure his presence, perhaps you should choose another path.”

Kamran stiffened at the implication.

Firuzeh laughed.

“Pull yourself together,” Hazan said to the prince.

“I have sympathy for your predicament only because I bore witness to your suffering. But this was your own demented idea. Your own insipid plan. I begged you— all of you —to listen to reason, and none of you would heed my council. Now we are condemned to live with the consequences of these collective decisions. I truly believe you’ve lost your fucking mind, Kamran, so I will forgive you this once for your disrespect—”

“Disrespect?” Kamran drew back. “Of him—?”

“ Of my queen ,” he said murderously. “You think to accuse a man of dishonor but you disrespect her in the process—”

“I didn’t—I’d not meant—”

“And if you cannot see that you deserve to be called out and cut down for your behavior just now, then you are not the man I thought you were—”

“All right, there?” called a lively voice.

Everyone stiffened at once.

Akbar, the soldier who’d given Alizeh the keys to the watchtower, was approaching them with an uncertain smile. “Your Majesty,” he said with a small bow, before nodding deferentially at Hazan.

There was no formal exchanging of salutes, no waiting for permission to speak. The casual mannerisms of these militias were of note to Alizeh.

Akbar indicated a troop standing in the near distance and said, “Some of us thought we heard shouting. I came to see if I might offer assistance.”

“Everything is fine,” said Hazan, even as he actively struggled to release the tension from his shoulders. “We’re only in the midst of some difficult discussions.”

“Very good, sir,” said Akbar. “I’ll let the others know.”

When Akbar made no attempt to leave, Hazan eyed him warily. “Was there something else?” he asked.

Akbar didn’t answer right away, though it soon became clear from his frequent glances at Cyrus that he was most interested in speaking to one person. He finally nodded at the king, squinting at him through a glare of sunlight.

“And how are we today, then?” he said to Cyrus. “You look as if you’ve been turned to dust in the worst way.”

“ Turned to dust? ” said Kamran.

“I’m fine,” said Cyrus, who did not seem fine.

“We’ve missed seeing our king and queen together,” said Akbar brightly. “Begging your pardon, sir, but where the bloody hell have you been?”

At that, everyone lifted their heads to look at the king, for no one knew the answer, and everyone was curious.

“I’ve been in the alps,” said Cyrus, nodding up at the snowy cascades. “I was hoping to spare our queen the brutal task of searching the entire mountain range.”

Akbar’s eyebrows flew up, and his face split into an enormous grin.

“ That’s why you’ve been gone? On a damned hero’s journey?

Ah, I knew you wouldn’t have left your queen without a good reason.

I tried to tell them—I said there’s no way our shite poet would abandon her— Oy,” he said, calling out to his friends. “The man remains a legend!”

The small crowd cheered.

Kamran muttered an epithet.

“Wait—Cyrus, what are you saying?” said Alizeh, rising slowly to her feet. “Have you discovered something?”

He looked at her then.

Cyrus met her gaze for the first time in five days, and the relief she felt being reunited with his eyes nearly brought her to tears.

“I think,” he said quietly, “I may have found the entrance.”